STOCKS: Playboy Covers Up

Playboy Covers Up

Fully half of the 28,000 stock-holders in Playboy Enterprises own only one < share, and those certificates often adorn such places as taverns and gym lockers. Reason: pinup value. Since Playboy went public in 1971, its stock certificates have sported the unclad image of Willy Rey, Miss February of that year. But because the cost of sending dividend checks and providing other services to all those one-share stockholders amounts to $100,000 a year, Playboy has decided to discourage souvenir collectors by issuing new certificates. Printed for the first time last week, the shares depict a "classically styled" woman holding aloft a...